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Treatment of Mine Drainage Improves Hubler Run
Waterbody Improved
Metals in discharges from abandoned coal mines impaired
Pennsylvania's Hubler Run, prompting the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to add 1.40 miles of the mainstem stream to the
state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2005. PADEP developed a
total maximum daily load (TMDL) and a watershed implementation plan to address the pollution
sources entering Hubler Run. Project partners installed four passive treatment systems for a cost of
over $720,000 to address the impacts of the mine drainage discharges entering the stream. Water
quality and aquatic habitat have been improving, and the stream was removed from the impaired
waters list in 2018.
Problem
The Hubler Run watershed drains approximately
1.05 square miles in Clearfield County in central
Pennsylvania (Figure 1). This watershed is pre-
dominantly forested with some farmland, but It has
experienced impairments from abandoned mine
drainage (AMD) discharges from drift mines, informal
openings where coal had been mined for household
use, and some surface mining completed in the 1960s.
Hubler Run is a tributary of Alder Run; according to the
Alder Run Operation Scarlift report published in 1977,
the stream's water quality was declining due to acidity
and metals from AMD.
A stream survey conducted by PADEP indicated that
Hubler Run was a degraded aquatic ecosystem with
depressed aquatic life due to AMD impacts. As a
result, PADEP included '1.40 stream miles of the main
stem of Hubler Run on the state's 2005 CWA section
303(d) list of impaired waters for not meeting the
aquatic life designated use due to low pH and elevated
levels of metals.
PADEP developed a TMDL In 2006 to serve as a
pollution diet for the Hubier Run watershed. The
TMDL set limits for metai loading (aluminum, iron and
manganese) systematically aiong stations on Hubler
Run. These iimits, which differ at each station based
on the existing site-specific pollutant loads, served as
goals for remediation.
Figure 1. Hubler Run is in central Pennsylvania.
Story Highlights
The Emigh Run/Lakeside Watershed Association
received a CWA section 319 grant in 2004 to assess
the watershed. Using TMDL assessment data, project
partners developed a watershed implementation plan
for Hubler Run, which was approved in 2007. More
than six AMD seeps were identified and sampled,
and four priority areas were listed in the watershed
implementation plan. Passive treatment systems
composed of anoxic limestone drains and limestone
leach beds have been constructed to address each of
the four priority areas (Figures 2 and 3).
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A Sampling Point
• Treatment Systems

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Figure 2. A passive treatment system installed at one of
the four priority sites.
Results
Monitoring has been occurring at the mouth of the
stream atTMDL point HR01 since 2011. This point is
downstream of the four constructed passive treatment
systems. The TMDL data collected in 2005-2006 is
considered the baseline. Data show that the treatment
systems have improved water quality. For example,
pH improved from a range of 4.1-5.7 in 2005-2006
(before treatment) to 6.65 in 2017 (after treatment).
Additional data are shown in Table 1. As a result of
these improvements, Hubler Run was removed from
the list of impaired waters in 2018. Project partners
attribute the improvements of water quality to the
passive treatment systems installed to address the
AMD discharges in this watershed.
Figure 3. A buried anoxic limestone drain empties into a
limestone channel.
Partners and Funding
Multiple stakeholders partnered to address the water
quality problems in the Hubler Run watershed, includ-
ing the West Branch Sportsman's Association; Alder
Run Engineering, LLC; Emigh Run/Lakeside Watershed
Association; Skelly and Loy, Inc.; Canaan Valley
Institute; and PADEP. Emigh Run/Lakeside Watershed
Association was awarded close to $700,000 from the
CWA Section 319 Program, along with other funds
from the Office of Surface Mining, the Foundation
for Pennsylvania Watersheds and the Canaan Valley
Institute, to construct the four passive treatment
systems. It is estimated that these partners contrib-
uted an additional $60,000.
Table 1. Hubler Run data collected at TMDL sampling point
HR01 before and after treatment.
Pollutants of Concern
(in mg/L)
Pre-Trcatment
Post-Treatment
TMDL Limit
for HR01
Iron
Not detected
0.12
Not applicable
Aluminum
1.50
0.09
0.25
Manganese
3.40
0.56
0.47
Acidity
41.65
0.00
3.82
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-20-0Q1J
May 2020
For additional information contact:
Kelly Williams
Clearfield County Conservation District
814-765-2629 • kwilliamsccd@atlanticbbn.net
R. Scott Carney
PA Department of Environmental Protection
717-783-2944 • rscarney@pa.gov

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